Huskies put on 'supershow'

Published 1:00 am, Sunday, October 17, 2004

STORRS - A certain expectation comes with being the three-time defending national champions.

But the UConn women's basketball team wasn't necessarily looking for perfection Saturday when the Huskies were allowed to hold their first full team practice.

"Considering how first days goes, (practice was) not bad," UConn coach
Geno Auriemma
said. "There's just enough good things to make you think we've got a chance to be pretty good, and there's just enough things to make you say, 'We've got a lot of things to work on.'"

Following practice, the players took part in the annual Super Show, which gave fans their first glimpse of this season's Huskies.

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Festivities included the team receiving the 2004 national championship rings and unveiling the
NCAA
title banner in front of an announced crowd of 8,000 at Gampel Pavilion.

The Super Show concluded with a scrimmage - two 15-minute periods against male practice players and one five-minute intrasquad session - that sometimes showed the dilemma Auriemma is seeing in practice.

"We're trying to coach two separate teams right now," Auriemma said. "You've got two fifth-year seniors who have won three national championships and gone to four Final Fours, and you've got a group of four other guys who have only known national championship since they've been at Connecticut. And then you've got five new guys who don't know any of our drills. There's no in between, so it's going to be kind of a delicate process for us to bring those two together and make sure the gap isn't real wide."

But there also were indications the newcomers are gelling well with the returning players.

"They're very quick learners in terms of what to do when they get the ball," Auriemma said of the rookies. "The one thing I can say about them is they're very aggressive. Whatever it is that they're missing is because they don't know yet. Their instincts, they're all very good. They all have very good instincts."

As expected, center
Jessica Moore
sat out of the scrimmage because she is not cleared to participate in contact drills. The senior is recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee, but she was allowed to participate in some drills at practice.

Also in the Super Show, senior
Stacey Marron
won the 3-point shooting contest, topping classmate Ashley Valley in the final. Marron made 14 treys in a 15-second span during the final.

Warm reception

Recruits Courtney and
Ashley Paris
attended the Super Show and sat behind the UConn bench during the festivities.

As the twins watched the scrimmage, some fans chanted the duo's names. Two fans also carried a banner bearing the Paris' names around the arena.

The two post players out of Piedmont, Calif., are considered two of the top high school seniors. They also are considering Oklahoma, Texas and UCLA.

One player the fans couldn't give a warm welcome to was ninth-grader
Elena Della Donne
. The 6-foot-3 guard originally planned on attending the Super Show this weekend for an unofficial visit, but personal reasons kept her at home in Wilmington, Del.

Not done playing

Maria Conlon
and Morgan Valley, both of whom completed their eligibility in the spring, have been playing alongside the Huskies in pick-up games the past few weeks. In the coming weeks, the two will be the opponent.

Conlon and Valley are signed up to play with the Premier Players exhibition tour, which makes a stop against UConn on Nov. 5. The two are planning on playing the entire two-week tour.